Say what you like about American war films or movies, but they’re really good in telling stories about good guys, who happen to be Americans, killing off bad guys, who most often are non-Americans. Who can forget the 1960s television longest-running World War II drama – “Combat” – where the good guys U.S. platoon fighting the bad guys Germans? Sure, it was a propaganda drama but it was absolutely entertaining.

But what do you get when you combine war film with the notorious badass cop Harry Callahan? We like “Combat” a lot but we love “Dirty Harry” even more. Unless you’re living in cave, you should know by now about Clint Eastwood’s latest box office – American Sniper. The film is a box office hit and has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture. American Sniper is so successful that it could cross the US$1 billion mark soon.

In only 10 days in release, American Sniperhas eclipsed the US$198.5 million earned all in by Michael Bay‘s Pearl Harbor, and it will soon overtake the US$216.5 million grossed by Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan in 1998. When that happen, and it will, the film will become the top-grossing war-themed film of all time in North America, not accounting for inflation. As of January 26, American Sniper has pocketed a cool US$200.4 million.

UnlikePearl Harbor or Saving Private Ryan, American Sniper is about modern-day warfare. The story is based on former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who earns the nickname “Legend” for his deadly kills – 255 kills, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defence. That essentially makes Kyle the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history. Critics say American Sniper is a story about a coward, but the Americans are celebrating the film.

If Charlie Hebdo had provoked Muslims with some silly cartoons, the same radical Muslims could be offended by American Sniper, thanks to Chris Kyle’s memoir where he called Iraq Muslims “savages”. According to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), threats to Arab and Muslim Americans have tripled since the film came out, so much so that they have written to actor Bradley Cooper and director Clint Eastwood for help.

ADC wants Mr. Eastwood or Mr. Cooper to tell the public – “Don’t use our film to propagate hatred or bigotry”. Fair enough, but why they never come to tell the Arab and Muslim Americans – “Don’t use Charlie Hebdo to propagate hatred or bigotry”? Get the juice? Both Charlie Hebdo cartoons and American Sniper film are provocative. But if radicals could just take both with a pinch of salt and treat them as merely entertainment, nobody gets killed.

If the Germans were to get offended by the “Combat” drama, both United States and Germany could be throwing grenades at each other as if they’re hamburgers till today. The job of a sniper is to kill the enemies. There was a scene whereby Kyle has his rifle trained on a mother and her young son as they approach a team of Marines. Their actions are suspicious but Kyle cannot be sure of their intentions. Should Kyle pull the trigger?

That, my friend, is one of the reasons why American Sniper is a film you should watch. When a sniper faces a situation where a young boy attempts to pick up a rocket launcher and fire it at his fellow soldiers, it’s a no-brainer decision to make. And remember, this is just a damn movie and what is being shown may not necessarily be the truth.

So no, the Americans should not target and bombard the Arab and Muslim Americans with hate speech after watching American Sniper. After all, didn’t President Obama show how he loves Arab more than the French? He cut short his India trip for Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah’s death but didn’t bother about Paris mega rally, did he not? It’s just that the Americans badly need their heroes, and since they couldn’t find one in their president, American Sniper is doing a roaring business.